By Mark Dovich
Anti-government protests continued over the weekend in central Yerevan as Armenia on Monday marked Victory and Peace Day, a Soviet-era holiday commemorating Armenian losses in World War II.
Thousands of demonstrators demanding that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resign continued gathering this weekend on France Square, a major intersection in downtown Yerevan that the opposition has chosen as the site of an indefinite sit-in.
At a large rally on France Square Monday evening, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a prominent opposition lawmaker who has emerged as one of the protest movement’s leaders, gave a wide-ranging speech, outlining in greater detail than before his plans for the country if Pashinyan were to step down.
“Artsakh (Karabakh) and the independence of Armenia is endangered because of this anti-national, incompetent government. We must correct this situation. Is it possible? Yes. How? The way out is to build security, solidarity, stability, and a strong Armenia,” he said.
In particular, Saghatelyan proposed forming an interim government of national unity, which, according to him, would involve limiting the powers of the prime minister and strengthening the parliamentary system.
“After stabilizing the situation, free, fair, competitive snap elections will presumably be held in one to one and a half years,” he added.
In the neighborhood, Saghatelyan ruled out accepting any agreements with Baku that would see Karabakh under Azerbaijani control or that would allow Baku to access a corridor across Armenia to connect mainland Azerbaijan with the Nakhichevan exclave.
Likewise, he ruled out signing any agreement to normalize relations with Turkey that does not include Ankara recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
Securing the return of all ethnic Armenian prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan must be a government priority, he added.
In domestic affairs, Saghatelyan pledged to reform Armenia’s law enforcement system, raise living standards in the country, and restore the ministries of agriculture and culture, which Pashinyan merged with other ministries in 2019.
Acts of civil disobedience aimed at paralyzing traffic in Yerevan are now entering their second week, preceded by a week of protest marches across the country late last month.
Last week saw police detain hundreds of protesters in the capital, prompting Kristinne Grigoryan, Armenia’s human rights defender, to release a lengthy statement “condemning the unlawful actions of police officers” in responding to the protests.
In addition to disproportionate use of force, Grigoryan’s office also reported other instances of police misconduct, including detaining demonstrators without explaining charges against them and holding detainees without charge beyond the maximum time limit set out in Armenian law.
The surge in protest activity comes in response to a controversial speech Pashinyan gave to parliament early last month that many in Armenia interpreted as an indication of his willingness to cede control over Karabakh to Azerbaijan in ongoing peace efforts.
The speech prompted widespread outrage both in Armenia and in Karabakh, leading thousands of protesters, who have dubbed themselves the Resistance Movement, to come out to the streets, preemptively rejecting any deal with Azerbaijan that would see ethnic Armenians lose control over Karabakh.
Meanwhile, Pashinyan on Monday paid visits to the Yerablur military cemetery and Mother Armenia monument in Yerevan, marking Victory and Peace Day, a holiday that commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II and is still celebrated in many post-Soviet countries.
In Armenia, May 9 is also celebrated as Shushi Liberation Day, meant to commemorate the establishment of ethnic Armenian control over the city of Shushi in Karabakh in the early 1990s. The holiday has taken on a more somber tone since 2020, when Azerbaijani forces took control of the city.
In a speech marking the holiday, Pashinyan repeated previous lines about there being no alternative to peace in the region and blaming his predecessors for Armenia’s disastrous military defeat to Azerbaijan in and around Karabakh about a year and a half ago.
“I congratulate all of us on the 77th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War,” Pashinyan said. “Today we bow to the deeds and memory of our heroes and our martyrs, and we are proud of the heroism of our ancestors.”
He continued: “Today, after the catastrophic 44-day war, we note with sorrow and bitterness that not only we failed to transform our victory in the first Artsakh war into a diplomatic, political, and economic victory, but also that many fruits of that victory are lost, and Artsakh and Armenia are facing serious challenges.”
“Our response to this situation, however, should not be apocalypticism, but a sober, cold, and professional analysis of the reasons underlying the current military-political and regional situation, and pragmatic planning of the future.”
“We are not the authors of the disasters of our country,” he concluded.
Stepanakert, Karabakh’s largest city, also marked Monday’s holiday, with residents taking part in the Immortal Regiment, a traditional way of marking the holiday in Russia and other post-Soviet countries that involves marching with photographs of relatives who fought in World War II.